Ivanka Trump may soon face a difficult choice — and not just over where to spend spring break

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U.S President Donald Trump speaks about small businesses while daughter and advisor to the President Ivanka Trump listens, during event in the East Room at the White House on August 1, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner dance at the Freedom Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center January 20, 2017 in Washington, D.C. President Trump was sworn today as the 45th U.S. President. (Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images)

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Ivanka Trump waves to the crowd as she walks on stage to deliver a speech during the evening session on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump received the number of votes needed to secure the party's nomination. An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Cleveland, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media. The four-day Republican National Convention kicked off on July 18. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks with his wife Melania Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump after the third U.S. presidential debate at the Thomas & Mack Center on October 19, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tonight is the final debate ahead of Election Day on November 8. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (R) kisses daughter Ivanka Trump during the town hall debate at Washington University on October 9, 2016 in St Louis, Missouri. This is the second of three presidential debates scheduled prior to the November 8th election. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

(L-R) Ivanka Trump, White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller, Deputy National Security Advisor Ricky Waddell and Deputy Director of Presidential Advance Jordan Karem walk across the South Lawn before departing the White House with U.S. President Donald Trump March 29, 2018 in Washington, DC. President Trump is traveling to Ohio to deliver a speech on infrastructure before continuing on to Palm Beach for the Easter holiday weekend. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump test the teleprompters and microphones on stage before the start of the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Ivanka will introduce her father before he gives his acceptance speech tonight, the final night of the convention. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In this handout image provided by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump (R) and Jared Kushner (L) attend their wedding at Trump National Golf Club on October 25, 2009 in Bedminster, New Jersey. (Photo Brian Marcus/Fred Marcus Photography via Getty Images)

Assistant to the President and Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump hosts a listening session with military spouses in the Roosevelt Room at the White House August 2, 2017 in Washington, DC. The military spouses said the choose professions that they can practice no matter where their partners are stationed but that licensing and certification continues to be a challenge when moving to a new post. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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Ivanka Trump appears to be at a turning point following a tumultuous first year as a senior White House advisor to her father, President Donald Trump.

According to a new story in Vanity Fair, her loyalties are surely being tested over a number of controversies besetting her father’s presidency, her husband Jared Kushner and herself, prompting writer Emily Jane Fox to ask: “If Ivanka Trump had to choose between her father and her husband, what would she do?”

In the short-term — meaning the recent holidays at least — it looks like Ivanka Trump chose her husband, who also is a senior White House advisor. Or rather, Donald Trump’s reported favorite child chose her husband’s family.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were noticeably absent from the Trump family’s highly publicized spring break and Easter weekend festivities at Mar-a-Lago. Ivanka Trump also didn’t bring her husband and kids to frolic with her siblings and their children at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll Monday.

Ivanka and Jared were spending this week with Kushner’s family in Saratoga, Wyoming, a small town west of Cheyenne that is known as a popular destination for hot springs, high-end shoppers and outdoors enthusiasts.

President Donald Trump delivers remarks from the Truman Balcony with first lady Melania Trump during the 140th annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Because Kushner grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household, and Ivanka Trump converted to Judaism before their 2009 wedding, it’s not likely the couple would be that interested in celebrating Easter. They might instead prefer to be with relatives celebrating Passover.

Town and Country, citing a report from Cheyenne news station KGWN, said that a plane carrying “two dozen members of Jared Kushner’s family” landed at Cheyenne Regional Airport last Thursday. The group then headed to Saratoga.

Cheyenne Mayor Marion Orr said the group would be “vacationing in Saratoga for about a week,” a timeframe that coincides with Passover, Town and Country said.

But Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s absence from Trump family events also comes at a particularly sensitive time — when her family seemed especially eager to put on a show of unity on behalf of their patriarch.

The Robert Mueller special counsel investigation and a host of other controversies continue to swirl around his presidency. The Trump family also has been rocked by Donald Trump Jr.’s divorce drama and by infidelity scandals involving both Trump Sr. and Trump Jr.

All of Ivanka Trump’s siblings were in the group that headed down to Trump’s private Palm Beach, Florida, resort, including Eric Trump and half-siblings Tiffany Trump and Barron Trump. Meanwhile, first lady Melania Trump appeared to put aside her reported anger and humiliation over the Stormy Daniels imbroglio to be photographed letting her husband take her hand or kiss her on the cheek.

Even Vanessa Trump was on board for the show of unity, several weeks after filing for divorce from Donald Trump Jr. Vanessa Trump spent the weekend with Trump Jr. at Mar-a-Lago, their five children and her in-laws, then joined the Trumps in Washington, D.C., for the Easter Egg Roll.

Of course, it wouldn’t be surprising to hear that Ivanka Trump welcomed the break from her father at this particular time. The New York Times reported last month that the president increasingly sees Kushner as “a liability” for his legal issues related to the Mueller investigation and for his security clearance controversy, and even asked his chief of staff John Kelly to encourage his daughter and son-in-law to return to New York. A new book, “The Trump White House: Changing the Rules of the Game,” also said Trump once privately mocked his son-in-law, saying he looked like “a little boy” during a TV appearance.

As Fox writes, 2018 could prove to be more tortured than 2017 for Donald Trump’s adoring daughter, as well as for her her husband.

When Ivanka Trump and her husband return to Washington, D.C., they’ll be going back to White House jobs that haven’t turned out to be the once-in-a-lifetime career opportunities they had reportedly hoped. As Fox writes, the couple work for an administration that can boast of one major legislative achievement but has otherwise faced intensifying pressure from various issues, including Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner attend a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House marking the September 11 attacks. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Fox adds that a roller-coaster of controversies — the Muslim ban, Charlottesville, Trump’s endless Twitter attacks on perceived enemies — have isolated Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner from their liberal, high-society friends in New York City. Moreover, allegations of sexual misconduct against the president and of his reported payoff to at least one porn star have hurt Ivanka Trump’s standing as a champion for women’s issues.

But the first daughter is also facing legal challenges of her own, according to journalist Hannah Seligson, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review. There has been increasing pressure on the media and other White House watchdogs to stop giving Ivanka Trump a free pass in any examinations of potential conflicts of interest, her reported role in the firing of former FBI director James Comey or her business deals with questionable foreign partners while she headed projects for her father’s Trump Organization. CNN also reported last month that the FBI was investigating the financing and negotiations surrounding her involvement with the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Vancouver.

So, it’s a challenging time in Trump world. It’s a challenging time for Ivanka Trump.

At least Ivanka Trump has this week off in the mountains of Wyoming — far from the White House.

President Donald Trump gestures as he walks with his daughter Ivanka Trump across the South Lawn of the White House in June 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

But as the Mueller investigation intensifies its examination of possible obstruction of justice or collusion with Russian agents, Fox writes that a “zero-sum environment” could develop in the White House, “pitting colleagues and family members against one another.” Fox cites a longtime friend of the president who says there is no way he would sacrifice himself for the sake of defending his son-in-law.

Does that mean Trump also wouldn’t sacrifice himself for the sake of his beloved daughter?

Martha Ross is a features writer who covers everything and anything related to popular culture, society, health, women’s issues and families. A native of the East Bay and a graduate of Northwestern University and Mills College, she’s also a former hard-news and investigative reporter, covering crime and local politics.

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